not trade weapons or anything else for hostages. >> the iran-contra scandal nearlycrippledronaldreagan's second term. marital infidelity and impeachment almost ended bill clinton's presidency. >> i earned capital in the campaign, political capital and now i intend to spend it. >> hubris slowed down george w. bush's second term followed by the war in iraq and 2008 financial crisis. with history as a guide president obama is looking to learn from his own mistakes. >> i hope and intend to be an even better president in the second term than i was in the first. >> john meacham is a pulitzer prize winning historian. he wrote about the prospects of president obama's second term. he's author of a new book "thomas jefferson, the art of power." good morning. first of all, why do presidents stumble so badly in second terms? >> absolutely, it's because, i think the president's clock now moves towards history. everybody else in washington's clock is moving towards the next election. and so his interests and their interests begin to divide as every day passes which is why it

petitions. they did not threaten third- party movements. in a nutshell,whatronaldreaganunderstoodwas a conservatism was not defined by its resentment. but which actually had a smile on its face. much like reagan himself. that is why it into a curious sort of way, it seems republicans, not out of breath out -- not out of nostalgia am i think for conservatives you can do a lot worse thing go back and look at the real reagan. the pragmatic reagan. the reagan who was willing under certain circumstances to raise taxes. the reagan willing to put dick on his ticket in '76 or george bush four years later. >> the tax policies that some precedent. do you think the fiscal cliff and the presence of the debt ceiling are enough to overcome this culture of obstruction? >> i am not sure it will overcome the culture of destruction. that is in many ways an outgrowth of the political system that we have built. on the other hand, you may not have to overcome the culture of obstruction. only have to pick up -- pick off x number members of congress. >> he said it was time for republicans to stopping t

% interest rates gas lines, stagflation in 1888 differentpresident.ronaldreaganinheriteda struggling economy. and reagan implemented policies 180 degrees opposite those of obama. incentive jacking up taxes, he slashed taxes. instead of exploding spending on the debt, he restrain the growth of spending and instead of unleashing the the regulators, by the way, what i think the regulators i can't help think of mr. burns saying release the hounds. [laughter] instead of releasing the hounds of regulators and small businesses a notch when there is, reagan limited regulation and the result was one of the most extraordinary burst of economic proactivity our nation has ever seen. the fourth-year regulation precisely corresponds to write here, the fourth year of obama's president be. anyone know what gdp growth was in 1984? 7.2%. our ideas work, their ideas don't. if you want growth, if you want jobs, if you want 23 million people struggling to find to get jobs, the answer is that the unique growth. they simplify the tax burden, reduce regulations and punching small businesses a notch for view

that to uswhenronaldreaganranfor reelection in 1984, the similar situation he raised money for his primary and the party come even though he took the public general election funding he attended for fundraisers in that year. what are we doing when we have the president running around? as i recall the nevada event after libya was a fundraiser. this is the fourth of his time in office is this election year and a spinning in a fundraisers. romney skeen skeen videotaped it is fundraisers talking about the 47% in a private room with people that's what they want to hear. that's who he's meeting with all the time. so this is a problem for both sides and were going to see the pressure in the house and senate races. >> we only have a minute left, but it does to hear if there is an action of some sort taken to compel disclosure or the higher degree of independence for whatever measures the face. the vision of the future two, three, four cyclists on the road butter politics is going to look like. you were describing a minute ago the growth of the party structure composed of these sorts of orga

, it tried to put factsbehindronaldreagansayingwe fought a war on poverty and poverty won. he basically argued the welfare state had hurt poor people particularly african-americans by discouraging marriage, encouraging laziness, encouraging people to have children out-of-wedlock. he put all the blame on poverty programs. as i was writing this book charles murray writes another book called coming apart:the state of white america and charles murray is now basically saying the same thing about white lower class, really working class men, white men, that he was saying about african-americans in the 80s, that they are working less and getting married less frequently not because of any change in the economy or in culture but because they can be supported by government. he also blamed feminism and that is very interesting. he really has an analysis that says working-class white people struggling because they are lazy and don't get married and hook up. so i started to think white people are starting to say the same thing about you, so mitt romney's 47% remark where he was talking about a majori